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Alienware m15 review: The mother of gaming notebooks finally gets slimmer

By Koh Wanzi - 21 Jan 2019

Conclusion

Alienware m15

This laptop is ridiculously expensive

Taken alone, the Alienware m15 isn't a bad laptop. It's fast and well-built, and it'll serve you pretty well as a gaming laptop. But when you look at what the competition has to offer, it's difficult to ignore the m15's flaws. Whichever way you look at it, the Alienware m15 is thicker, heavier, and somehow, still more expensive than the other players on the field. 

I'm not even talking in terms of a few hundred dollars, which could perhaps be chalked up to some sort of premium associated with the Alienware brand. No, the Alienware m15 is a whopping S$5,356, which honestly is a crazy, steep price. For context, the Razer Blade has nearly identical specifications and costs just S$3,899. The difference between the two laptops? A mere extra 16GB of RAM on the Alienware m15 and a dual storage configuration comprising a 256GB SSD and a 1TB SSHD. In comparison, the Blade 15 is thinner, lighter, and has a single 512GB SSD. Oh, and it has a larger battery that can last far longer. 

I'm not even sure how Alienware can justify its price, considering how close the two notebooks are in terms of gaming performance. And even if we were to discount the ridiculous price difference, the Blade 15 still offers more, with support for per-key customizations, a large, glass trackpad, and better speakers. Similarly, the other laptops are equipped with near-identical hardware and cost so much less, so there's literally no reason to pick the Alienware over them. 

There's simply no way I can recommend the Alienware m15 at this price. The laptop is due for a refresh with NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX graphics at the end of the month, so here's to hoping there are some price revisions on the way as well. 

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7.5
  • Design 8
  • Features 8.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 5.5
  • Mobility 7
The Good
Great gaming performance
Solid build quality
Display is nice and bright
The Bad
Thick top and bottom bezels
Mediocre battery life
Relatively thick and heavy compared to other Max-Q notebook
No per-key RGB lighting
Ridiculous price
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